Alas! Bob has been fatally wounded. As he lies dying, motes of light begin to rise off his body, slowly at first, but increasing in speed. Just before he fully disappears, he makes one last optimistic comment, and his body bursts into a thousand tiny pinpricks of light. This saves his friends the inconvenience of burying him.

In kind of an odd subversion of the trope, however, the use of the Goldion Hammer is almost always non-lethal: the "Hammer Hell and Heaven" maneuver that starts the attack rips the core containing the human host of the monster (or the cockpit containing the pilot of the enemy mecha, as the first episode of FINAL showed) out of its body so that they can be returned to normal safely (or arrested or rather, shot in the face with a bazooka). It should be noted that the hammer strike itself (the part that does the disappearing) is most certainly lethal. If Guy doesn't care to remove you from the Robeast first, that's your ass.

Digimon Adventure did this when Angemon and Devimon died. It's also used in Digimon Tamers, with the addition that Mons can absorb the motes to increase their power.

The general deletion effect, though, was a much-less-romantic bursting-into-particles effect.

Sailor Moon does this when people die in the later seasons (particularly heart breaking examples exist in Sailor Moon Stars). In the first season when people die they leave corpses behind — except Nephrite, whose death is probably the most heartwrenching moment of the first season.

In Last Exile, Maestro Delphine's ring will cause you to explode into light when you take it from her finger.

On Afro Samurai, After being fatally wounded by Kuma/Jinno, Ninja-Ninja does this. The only reason he does and no one else who dies does is because he's imaginary.

In Gash Bell, the demons whose books get burned get returned to the demon world in this manner. Moments of optimism vary depending on the manner in which they're sent off, and their personalities in general.

In Transformers Cybertron, Galvatron meets his end this way. Vector Prime's death was similar, but the manner in which it happened makes it a bit more believable. Vector Prime gave up his life energy reversing time. Galvatron, on the other hand, was impaled by Optimus Prime with Vector Prime's sword, which should have just left him plain ol' dead. It's inverted in Transformers Armada when Optimus Prime is resurrected.

Happens to Emperor Charles and Empress Marianne late in Code Geass. May be justified since the characters in question had been cheating death, and rather than outright dying, they were forcibly absorbed by the afterlife. Not to mention the whole thing actually takes place in a mystical realm.

Everyone except Shou, Chronos, Judai and Johan in the third season of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. The dub apparently changed this to 'going to the stars' or something. It began getting really obvious that there'd be a reset button as soon as the entire cast was gone essentially.

In Vision of Escaflowne, Zaibach mecha usually melt and evaporate into blue flame after they've been destroyed. It's implied to be because of the liquid metal they use for their weaponry.

An interesting variety occurs in Kurau Phantom Memory: after she gets hit by the Rynax, Kurau dissolves into a swirling tornado of light—which shortly after reassembles into Kurau, now merged with the Rynax.

Lordgenome when he dies again in the final battle. Being the channel between a Big Bang happening and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's spiral engine is lethal.

TBH, almost everyone in TTGL dies in a variation of this. Either because of the "pencil sketch being blown apart and fading to white" death animation, or, well, because they're likely to be inside an exploding Humongous Mecha at the moment of their death.

(Manga Only) This happened to Eureka in Eureka Seven upon the Scab Coral's demise. Its a rather unfair ending for Renton...

Naruto: It's discovered that the otherwise unstoppable ninjas resurrected by the Impure World jutsu are released and will permanently dissolve if their spirits are calmed. For example, Sai's brother is able to stop after finally seeing the book Sai made for him and Sasori is able to leave after A) Kankuro points out that the puppet master has become Madara and Kabuto's puppet and B) he sees that Kankuro has learned his killer puppet techniques, ensuring that his art will last forever, just like he always wanted. Sasori even gives Kankuro his mother and father puppets before dissolving (aww).

In Episode 40, Sasorina goes out in the same manner, fading away in Kumojacky's arms after thanking him and Cobraja for being there for her. Eight episodes later, Dark Precure also dies in this manner in the arms of Professor Sabaaku (a.k.a. Yuri/Moonlight's father, brainwashed by the Big Bad), after being fatally wounded in her final clash with Cure Moonlight. Professor Tsukikage apologizes to the both of them and tells Dark to stand down, and calls her his second daughter. She calls him "father" and relaxes, releasing her anger as she fades away in his arms. Note that both of these cases also fall under Go Out with a Smile.

Eventually subverted in the finale. Tutu does dissolve into light, but Duck is still alive - she just can't transform into a human anymore.

In Sword Art Online, players shatter into multicolored sparkles when they die. The same happens when items are destroyed, which a few clever players use to fake their deaths when combined with a teleport crystal.

Mekakucity Actors: Azami in Episode 10, after delivering a Despair Speech about how foolish she was to believe she could lead a normal life despite being an immortal being. She disappears into the Heat Haze World right in front of her daughter, and by the time her husband reaches her, there is only a fading cloud of sparkling lights left.

Anime version of Shigatsu Wa Kimi No Uso did it very beautifully and tearjerking as possible. The fate of Kaori after finishing her long-awaited duet with Kousei in final episode. It's unclear whether the Kaori that playing alongside Kousei was indeed her spirit before going to afterlife or just Kousei pure imagery, but it makes him realize that her surgery is fail and she's dead for sure.

Comic Books

The corpse of Reality Warpingmutant Absolom Mercator disappeared from its casket and apparently turned into butterflies.

Film

At the end of Corpse Bride, Emily is able to move on from being betrayed, and to let Victor be with Victoria instead of trying to take him from her. She fades into blue butterflies, which fly away.

Arthur Spiderwick makes a similar departure in The Spiderwick Chronicles, although it's dandelion-seed fluff that he's swept away as, and he's being carried off to a fairy realm rather than dying.

Daemons in The Golden Compass movie disappear in a shower of sparks when the human they belong to is killed.

In season 8 of Supernatural, after Bobby's soul is freed from Hell by Sam, he ascends to Heaven in a sparkling whorl of lightóbut only after the demon Crowley holds him back with dark clouds and the angel Naomi drives off Crowley and liberates Bobby's soul to finally ascend to Heaven.

In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, monsters die this way; instead of turning to dust like the source material or exploding like most toku monsters, they violently disperse into wisps of light.

In Pokťmon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, this happens to Hydreigon when Kyurem destroys him by freezing and smashing him, but he manages to save the hero by guiding their friends to them as a light before disappearing (Temporarily, at least).

Sydney and Hardin in Vagrant Story. On the other hand, anyone else unlucky enough to die within Lea Monde's walls tends to Dissapear Into Darkness, their souls consumed and enslaved by the eldritch power of the city.

Creatures 3 and Docking Station have the bodies of dead norns disappearing this way, but only after they've been dead awhile. After all, you might want to determine cause of death first.

Replicas, including Ion in Tales of the Abyss.Nearly happens to Luke at one point, too, except for Asch's intervention. Justified in that they're entirely made from Seventh Fonons, rather than a normal human's mixture of fonons and matter (or something like that - the game makes an effort at describing the world's physics, but it's a little fuzzy in places), and so when they die those fonons dissipate.

This happens to a lot of characters across all the .hack games. Usually this means that the player behind the character is now comatose. The few cases of dissolving that do not result in comas include Aura and Mia in the original games, and Haseo (twice!) in the GU games.

Maxim and Selan at the end of Lufia 2: Return of the Sinestrals.

When the Servants from Fate/stay night are destroyed, they dissipate into a cloud of sparks. Only in extreme cases do they ever leave any physical residue behind. Their soul, now detached from any attachment to the world, are then caught by the Holy Grail and used for power, much like a waterwheel uses a river for motive force, as they burrow back to the Throne of Heroes that it originated from.

Death in battle in Fire Emblem tends to result in this though your units will generally get in a death quote first.

This is what is set to happen to all of humanity in Rewrite if salvation takes place as in Shizuru's route.

At the end of the bonus game in Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull, Captain Crown's crew reanimates their skeletons to attack their ghostly captain (it's OK, he murdered all of them), everything goes bright, and then the Master Detective regains consciousness in the swamp.

The bonus game in Fate's Carnival wraps up with Madame Fate and her cat Isis, free at last, dissipating into a moonbeam.

If you use the Ion Cannon at the end of the GDI campaign of Command & Conquer, the ending cutscenes shows Kane standing before the ion beam with his hands outstretched, as though embracing it, as the light envelops him.

Played with in that a) the light is what kills him rather than a consequence of his death and b) he didn't stay dead.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The old woman also known as Impa dies in this way at the end. Her role was fulfilled after the defeat of Demise, both in the past and in the present, and had lived for thousands of years already, justifying the trope.

How all the Demi-gods that rely on mantra in Asura's Wrath die. Including Asura himself.

In Sands of Destruction, Kyrie does when he dies. You later encounter him again as a glowing ball of light, which is apparently what the Destruct looks like when not in a human body. It's still very obviously Kyrie, though, refusing to obey the Crimson Sun's orders to go back and destroy the world and then flashing with excitement when Morte speaks to him.

Web Original

Subverted in Today I Die, where the Disappear signifies a return to life.

When Brushogun dies in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo this happens. Although this one can be justified in that magic was the only thing keeping him alive in the first place.

When reality breaks in the Justice League episode built around a comic book dream, the heroes are all absorbed by light, presumably to death. They smile and salute in their final moments.

In the fourth season of Winx Club Nabu's body did not disappear after he sacrificed himself, (although it did glow and float a few inches off the ground for some reason) but Aisha later uses her magic to turn his body into flowers.

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